Two Maryland Regions Adjusting to Cyclical Changes

Richmond Fed leaders visited two regions of Maryland this summer to learn more about these communities’ labor markets, local housing needs and business trends.
The Bank’s Community Conversations team, led by President Tom Barkin, spent time in Anne Arundel County in mid-July. In mid-August, the group, which included Regional Executive Andy Bauer and Community Development Manager Peter Dolkart, visited cities in three Maryland counties – Caroline, Talbot and Dorchester. During both tours, they learned that while the local economies are strong, the labor markets are very tight.
“The labor force participation rate is still well below where it was prior to the pandemic,” Bauer said. “All of these communities are still trying to figure out where the workers went.”
During their visit with Chamber of Commerce members in Anne Arundel, a county that is part rural and part urban, the Community Conversations team discovered that along with pondering this question, community leaders are taking steps to turn the tide, including exploring how to expand transportation options.
The county has tapped nearby Towson University to conduct a study on the area’s changing labor force. Additionally, “They are trying to think of ways to get people who are out of the labor force off the sidelines or make it easier for people who are underemployed and living outside the county, such as in Baltimore City, to be able to commute to Anne Arundel for work,” said Bauer, noting that the unemployment rate is 1.8 percent. “Anne Arundel is part of the Baltimore region, but there’s not really transportation from other parts of the region into the county – you need a car.”
Even the casino in the region has found it difficult to find workers, Bauer said, along with business owners in the financial services, leisure and hospitality industries, and at a thriving Army base.
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